John Fortune
John Fortune is a fictional character in the Wild Cards series of books. History John Fortune is the son of Peregrine and Fortunato and was a latent who obtained the potential to express the wild card virus from both of his parents. Initially, it was feared John would be born dead or a hideously deformed joker, the fate of most children born to infected parents, but Peregrine encountered the Living Gods while in Egypt. One of the Living Gods had the power to "bless" unborn children and, months later, amid a hostage crisis at the Jokertown Clinic, John was born, a perfectly normal, healthy baby boy. John grew up with with the best of everything his wealthy mother could buy, including bodyguards to protect him from any unnecessary stress that might trigger his wild card to manifest. An accident at a Las Vegas magic show proved to be the stress trigger that activated John's wild card. When his wild card turned he became an ace. Using one of his newfound powers, John quickly healed the injured performer and came to the attention of several groups interested in him. Unfortunately, John's powerful ace ability turned out to be a Black Queen that would eventually kill him and possibly destroy the planet as well. John's father, Fortunato died using all of his power to heal his son. Healing John meant removing the wild card from John's body, thus turning him into a nat. After this John took a job working for his mother's reality TV show, American Hero. Mostly he attended to small matters and made sure the stars of the show had everything they needed, prompting some of the contestants (but especially the joker-ace Drummer Boy) to mock him as Captain Kruller. His only real friends at this time were actually drinking buddies, Lohengrin and Jonathan Hive. Around this time John was brought into contact with a small red stone given to his mother by the Living Gods. This stone was in fact a petrified scarab and all that remained of Sekhmet, a joker woman from Egypt. Implanting itself into his body, this stone had a personality and powers that were originally meant to be combined with John's own wild card. Instead, John could now only access Sekhmet's power to transform into a giant fire-breathing lioness. In this capacity, John Fortune became a founding member of the Committee, serving as a public spokesman and a field leader in combat. Under John's leadership the Committee became a force for good to be reckoned with, tackling trouble spots around the world, but especially in the Middle East and Africa. Unfortunately, during the Committee's final confrontation with the deranged ace Tom Weathers, it became necessary for John's joker symbiote to abandon him in favor of Little Fat Boy. John is now once more a nat and has left his position as director of the Committee to travel the world. Wild Card Traits When John turned his ace his body was surrounded by a vibrant orange glow. While in this state John could heal wounds and injuries by a simple laying on of hands. Gradually, this orange glow began to manifest in the form of light and heat, singeing or burning objects with which John came into contact. Left unchecked, this ever increasing power could have eventually killed Fortune and ignited Earth's atmosphere, causing the deaths of billions. These ace traits were eliminated from John's DNA along with all traces of the wild card virus by Fortunato. Later, John fused with the scarab/joker Sekhmet as originally intended by the Living Gods. In this new symbiotic incarnation John Fortune could physically metamorphose into a giant lioness. In this animal form John was highly resistant to damage, seemingly invulnerable to flames and gunfire. While in animal form John could also breathe blasts of fire on his enemies. Appearance John is a handsome young man of mixed ancestry. He has golden brown skin and epicanthic folds around his eyes. During his stint as an ace working for the Commitee, John had an unsual red, glowing scarab set beneath the skin in the middle of his forehead. Personality Trivia John is the only character who has been a: *Latent (Suicide King) *Ace *Black Queen *Nat Selected Reading * * . * . * . * *Wild Cards Volume XXV: Low Chicago Category:Animal-based characters Category:Protagonists Category:Committee members Category:Energy projectors